Life on Nanchang Lu: The Leshan Giant Buddha 乐山大佛

I like to think as an Australian I have a degree of expertise in large things, because my home country takes a particular pride in its 'bigs' - the Big Apple in Tasmania, the Big Prawn at Ballina, the Big Sheep, the Big Cow, the Big Mower (at Beerwah). I've climbed to the top of Big Pinepapple and ridden on the Macadamia Nutmobile (eight giant brown nuts weaving through the macadamia trees!), and walked through the middle of the Big Banana in Coff's Harbour...the list is endless. Kitsch they may be, but they're colourful and hey, they're BIG.

我喜欢像一个澳大利亚人那样来思考，对于大的东西我都有一定程度的专业知识，因为我的国家特别引以为豪就是众多的“大个子” -塔斯马尼亚岛的大苹果，巴利纳大对虾，大绵羊，大牛，大割草机（在比尔瓦）。我爬过巨大的菠萝灌木，乘坐过澳洲坚果的列车，穿梭在的巨大香蕉树丛中，由于不断的有新的“大个子”出现，这个名单也是没法列完整的。

All this big-ness expertise, though, left me unprepared for one of China's bigs. Turns out the Chinese have been doing big since AD713, when monk Haitong at Leshan had the idea of carving a giant seated Buddha into a cliff facing the confluence of two rivers, a site with powerful currents and lethal for boats. He hoped the Buddha would be able to tame the savage waters.

虽然有了这些专业知识，然而出乎我意料的是中国的一项大工程。从公元713年起中国人就开始做这个大工程，当时，乐山的海通和尚有个想法，想要在悬崖中雕刻一个巨大的坐佛，面向着两江汇流处，这个位置处在汹涌的河流交汇处，对过往船只的安全影响极大。他希望佛陀能够驯服汹涌的河流水域。

The Buddha is best seen from the water amid those exact same savage waters, but we don't initially know this and decide to tackle the Buddha head first so to speak, climbing up moss-covered stone stairs through a lush green rainforest to the cliff top temple, level with the top of the Buddha's tightly curled black head.

When we reach the top though we can see bugger all - there are around two thousand people here on a weekday morning. Over the heads of the crowd I can glimpse his right eye and his nose but little else, and photo touts have commandeered the only viewing platform, charging 50 yuan to have a photo of yourself taken standing on a stool and appearing to pinch Buddha's nose. Classy.

Thank goodness we didn't try to visit during Golden Week (China's main national holiday, in the first week of October) as had been our original plan - we would have been crushed to death by the enthusaistic crowds.

最好的观佛的位置是在河流上，但我们最初不知道这一点，我们起先决定爬到佛像顶部，我们穿过茂密的热带雨林中覆盖着苔藓的石阶，攀登到在悬崖顶部的寺庙，在这里我们可以看到佛像紧密卷曲的黑色头型，右眼和鼻子，仅此而已。有承包了观景台的人在兜售拍照，收费50元可以照出自己捏佛像鼻子效果的照片。路上的游人摩肩接踵，大家排一个小时的队去观摩佛像的剩余部分–沿着石阶走下，穿过他的肩，肘，搭在膝盖上的他的手，最后到他巨大的脚，每个脚趾有一辆小面包车那么大。

Everyone is thronging to join in the hour-long queue to see the rest of the Buddha - to climb down stone steps on the inside of the cliff he's nestled into, past his giant shoulder, his massive elbow, his hand resting on his knee, then lastly his enormous feet, each toe the size of a minibus.

The queue snakes back and forth between eight rows of barriers and eventually we reach the front, only to find we are now pushed forward on a see of people dangerously jammed into a tiny viewing platform where we can barely breathe. We can see below us to the next platform where children and the elderly are being squashed sideways by the surging crowds.

After the taking of this photo - over the heads of four Chinese women pinned between the railing and us - we hold a brief and urgent family conference, held under the armpit of a large Chinese man who is trying to clamber over us, and decide to give up and view the Buddha from the deck of one of the less crowded boats we can see below us.

在八排栅栏间队列如蛇形迂回，最终我们到达前面，才发现，我们身处危险，被挤进一个很小的观景台，可以看到我们下面的下一个观景平台，儿童和老人被汹涌的人潮挤到一边。经过短暂的家庭会议后，身旁就是一个魁梧的中国男人，他试图插到我们前面去，于是，我们决定放弃，同时看到的下面有很多船只，我们觉得在船只甲板上也可以观看佛像。

The boat is a much better plan, even though we have to hand over another fistful of money to get on one. There are even, unusually, lifejackets, and we can't board until we are each wearing one. Once we reach the Buddha though, battling against the swift current at full throttle in order to stand stationary for a few minutes, our fellow passengers abandon the ugly padded orange lifevests so their photos look better.

This outfit may actually have been improved by a lifejacket....

The view from the river gives you an idea of the full majestic height of the Buddha - his ten giant toes, truly like 'ten minibuses parked side by side' according to my daughter.

The huge elegant hands rest gently on his knees and it seems amazing that this was accomplished with human hands alone more than 1200 years ago. As the boat finally overcomes the strongest currents and we head back upstream I catch a last glimpse of the Buddha's beatific face, calmly serene despite the ant-like humans swarming past him in a never-ending file, and the turbulent waters rushing past.

选择船只绝对是一个更好的计划，使你对佛像雄伟的高度有一个完整的认识– 他有10个巨大的脚趾，按照我女儿的想法真像是“十辆并排停靠的小巴”。巨大优雅的手轻轻地放在他的膝盖上，这看起来太不可思议了，这居然是1200多年前完全依靠人类的双手完成的。当船终于越过强劲的河流返回上游时，我最后凝视着佛像喜乐平和的面庞，尽管蚂蚁般的人群永不停歇地拥挤穿过，尽管狂暴的河流在它面前汹涌奔腾，他的面容依旧安详从容。